1 Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs History

Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs History Project AMBASSADOR HARVEY F. NELSON, JR Interviewed by: Charles Stuart Kennedy Initial Interview date: September 5, 2000 Copyright 2007 ADST TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Born and raised in California Occidental College, University of Stockholm, Sweden; Fletcher School US Navy, WWII Russian language training (US Navy) Marriage Instructor at Bowdoin College Entered the Foreign Service in 1950 Copenhagen, Denmark; Consular/Political Officer 1952-1956 Consular cases Environment Dane/German relations Political orientation Relations McCarthy era Relief Refugee Staff, Naples State Department; INR; European Intelligence analyst 1956-1957 State Department: FSI; Finnish language study 1958 University of Indiana; Eastern Europe studies 1958-1959 State Department; Director, Sweden, Finland and Iceland 1959-1961 Swedish neutrality Soviet-Swede relations US assistance to Finland Soviet submarines Environment US military base Communist Party 1 Relations with Sweden Finnish elections Helsinki, Finland; Political Counselor 1961-1964 Soviet relationship US Ambassadors Vice President Johnson visit Communist Party Kekkonen Relations North Koreans Elections Political Parties Leopoldville, Congo; Political Officer 1965-1967 Language diversity Tribes Mobutu Smuggling Libreville, Gabon; Deputy Chief of Mission 1967-1969 Environment French influence Family Peace Corps withdrawal Relations Biafra war State Department; Deputy Director, Southern African Affairs 1969-1971 South Africa Southern Rhodesia Portuguese former colonies African National Congress Senior Seminar 1971-1972 Lusaka, Zambia. Deputy Chief of Mission 1972-1975 Environment President Kenneth Kaunda USAID Farming Chinese presence Economy Regional “Freedom Fighters” 2 Member, US delegation to UN General Assembly: Africa expert 1975-1976 Idi Amin and anti-Israel Resolution Moynihan Delegate Pearl Bailey African delegations State Department; Congressional Relations 1976 Panama Canal Treaty Johannesburg, South Africa; Deputy Chief of Mission 1976-1979 Soweto rebellion Namibia Relations Environment Political Parties USIS office in Soweto Black, White sentiments Prejudices Apartheid, views US sanctions Cape Town environment Thought on country’s future Diplomat in Residence; Arizona State University 1979-1980 Community Colleges Iran hostage problem State Department Representative, US Army War College. 1980-1984 Carlyle, Pennsylvania College course and aims Relations with State Department Wife’s tragic death Ambassador to Swaziland 1985-1988 Area instability Environment Mozambique Relations Government Maureen Reagan’s visit King Mswati III Remarriage Foreign community US Delegation to the UN General Assembly 1988-1989 3 Retirement 1989 Post Retirement 1989, 1991 US Delegation to the UN General Assembly INTERVIEW [Note: This interview was not edited by Ambassador Nelson] Q: First of all, let’s start at the beginning. Where were you born? What about your family? NELSON: I was born in Long Beach, California on January 26, 1924. My father and mother came from Nebraska. They were part of a large migration that brought many Nebraskans to Southern California. My paternal grandfather was of Swedish stock; he had immigrated when he was about nine or ten years old. He went to South Dakota to work in the gold mines in the Black Hills. I don’t know much about my paternal grandmother; she was raised in the Middle West and had some harrowing stories to tell about encounters with the Indians. That much I do remember. My maternal grandfather, George Norris, was in politics; he was first a Congressman from Nebraska and then Senator for a number of years. He had a lot to do with the establishment of TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority). A dam in TVA is named after him. His wife, my blood grandmother, died in childbirth; he married another woman who raised his three daughters. I don’t know anything about this second wife, although she was a very strong prohibitionist. That effected our lives at times in amusing ways. My paternal grandfather and grandmother moved to California in about 1920; then the rest of the family followed them. As I said, I was born in Long Beach; my father was in real estate with his father; they were very successful. In the early days of Southern California, it was a very profitable business. Q: How did you mother and father meet? NELSON: I am not sure; I used to think it happened when both were students at the University of Nebraska, but I am not sure, although I think it is a reasonable assumption. My mother’s older sister also went to the University of Nebraska. But I am not sure that my mother ever finished university. She went to school at Goucher College, an institution in the Washington area, when her father was in Congress. We moved from Long Beach to Hollywood in about 1926. My father and grandfather made a lot of money in real estate, as I have mentioned. My parents built their dream 4 house in Glendale - a Tutor house. It was a beautiful place. We moved in just before the depression, which then forced us to move out. They had to sell the house to meet all their debts. So we moved across the canyon in Glendale - about three or four miles away - to an interesting old house which was much more fun for us kids. It had been partially burned down by a forest fire, but was patched up. They rented the place for $50 per month. Eventually, we made more repairs and built it up. It was our home for much of my youth. My parents eventually bought the place. It survived until the freeways came along; now the lot is part of a highway. That was very depressing to my father who really loved the place. It was a wonderful place to grow up in. Q: Did your father remain in the real estate business? NELSON: He did, but his real passion was the oil business. He did a lot of prospecting; he was a very well respected business man in the Los Angeles area. Even in the depression, it was not that hard for him to raise money for various oil expeditions. There were some people who still had resources in the early 1930s; furthermore, oil exploration was a tax write-off ; that made investments attractive, particularly for those in the high tax brackets. My father became involved in some interesting explorations; I can remember going to the oil fields often when he and his wild-catter friends would be drilling or trying to find a new field. We would sit and wait for the gusher. I never saw one. So I don’t think my father was very successful in the oil business, but he did develop a few small fields. He went on one expedition where the drilling was down 15,000 feet; in the 1930s, that was a real feat. It was very expensive of course. He finally had to quit that field because he just couldn’t or wouldn’t ask for more money from anybody. Of course, a few years later one of the major oil producers took over the field and drilled another 500 feet or so and hit pay dirt - a major gusher! So my father was right about the location. He always used to say that the oil was there; it was just a matter of finding it. So oil exploration was the love of his life, but the income for the family came from the real estate business. I went to Glendale high school and then to Occidental College when WWII came along. Q: What was life like at home ? Did you have brothers and sisters? NELSON: I had two younger sisters. I was the oldest child. My mother was very much involved in politics; she was an avid Democrat. For a while, she headed up the League of Women Voters chapter in Los Angeles County. This attachment to politics of course came from her life experiences with her father. She continued her almost fanatic interest in politics until she died four years ago at the age of 101. Q: I think I remember that particularly in the early 1930s, politics was a consuming business for a lot of people. NELSON: Quite right. The bookshelves were filled with books about politics and the 5 muckrakers like Upton Sinclair were riding high. Then there was the Townsend plan. That was something. I can remember when we moved from our up-scale house to the considerably more modest dwelling, I went to a little grammar school at the bottom of the hill on which we were living. That was a three room school. The playground was in very bad shape. This was a fairly conservative community, but I was a supporter of FDR. We used to fight about politics on the playground. It was a very activist time. That was a very intense period, in part because a lot of people were afraid; they didn’t know how to escape from the terrible economic conditions. I can remember when the banks were closed; I never understood that - I was too young. But it was obviously a very difficult period. My parents were very good; they were living on the margin, but they never made us kids feel that the family was in trouble. In retrospect, I now know that we really were in great difficulties. As I said, particularly my mother, felt very strongly about the political scene and about bringing the economic crisis to an end through some political actions. We used dinner time as forum for discussions. I liked that even though we used to sit sometime for hours. The subject usually would be politics, although sometime we listened to a discussion of the oil business. Sunday morning breakfast used to be outside; sometimes those meals would last until three o’clock in the afternoon. Those meals were really gripping; that is what really got me interested in the public service.

Load more